Zechariah 12

English Standard Version

English Standard Version

1The oracle of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: (Isa 42:5; Isa 48:13; Na 1:1)

2“Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. (Isa 51:17; Isa 51:22; Zec 14:2; Zec 14:14)

4On that day, declares the Lord, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. (De 28:28; Ps 76:6; Zec 12:3)

5Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the Lord of hosts, their God.’

6“On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem. (Jer 5:14; Ob 18; Zec 2:4; Zec 9:15; Zec 12:3; Zec 14:10)

7“And the Lord will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah.

10“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. (Jer 6:26; Jer 31:9; Jer 50:4; Am 8:10; Joh 19:37; Re 1:7)

11On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. (2Ch 35:24; Zec 12:3; Ac 2:37)

12The land shall mourn, each family1 by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; (2Sa 5:14; Zec 7:3; Lu 3:31)

13the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; (Nu 3:18)

14and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.